HOW CHANGING MY SURNAME COST ME A SCHOLARSHIP



One major wrong decision I made was changing my surname while I was in secondary school. How can anyone imagine me changing my surname without telling my parents or guardian? Who could have inspired me to do that? Who has done it before me? 


The truth is that before I decided to change my surname in secondary school, I have never seen anyone change their surname. They may change their first and middle names, but definitely not their surname. Having not seen anyone change their surname did not deter me from doing so, I knew I needed to do so, and I did. For me, it was all that mattered and no one was going to stand in my way. 


So, why did I change my surname? 

I lived in Ilorin with my maternal Granny and other family members before I turned 5 and I did not begin schooling until I was 6. At that time, other kids staying with my granny had already started schooling in Ilorin. 


I usually stayed at home with my great-grandmother whenever everyone had gone to work and other kids had gone to school. When I was about 6 years old, my maternal great-grandmother had relocated to Kogi state and I was going to live with her. This meant that I would begin schooling in Kogi state. 


I resumed school later in the first term; I was the last kid to resume. However, the first thing I noticed was that all the kids made a mockery of my surname and it continued that way until I became the senior prefect in primary 6. The situation got worse when I got to secondary school. “Sule”, which was my surname then, was used to describe people who are considered dull and near-imbecile. That was not the reputation I wanted. 


I thought that could not change people from seeing me that way as long as I answered that name. I grew so uncomfortable with the name, and I decided to change it to “Soul’e” without informing my mother or grandmother with whom I lived. I had the right to choose the name I wanted to be called, didn’t I? I did not have my father’s contact at that time, so seeking his opinion, even though it would have been necessary, was impossible. 


The vice-principal academy dragged me for a long time over the name change, but he was not going to change my decision, I frustrated him to let me be. From then on, my reputation as an obstinate and coldblooded decision maker began to grow. If I said I would do something, most people knew I was going to do it. 


I only got to realize that my decision was wrong many years later when I was awarded a scholarship to study in Macedonia and I needed to make my international passport. In the process of making my international passport, I kept getting complaints about my surname, but I was adamant that I would go on with it. However, when I got to the capturing stage, I was stopped. 


The reason was that they could not continue because my surname suggested that I was not a Nigerian. How possible could that be? Deep within me, I knew that no family in my tribe answered “Soul’e”, but I did not mind becoming the first. I was called for another interview, and the person interviewing me was from my local government. He made it known that I could not be an Ibira man because my surname was not affiliated with Ibira origin. 


They refused to have my passport done with the name and insisted I bring my birth certificate before I could proceed with it. It occurred to me that I needed to do a surname change and newspaper publication too. By the time I was done with all of those, it was already late to put in for the scholarship. I lost it! I lost the scholarship because of a fast but wrong decision to change my surname when I was in secondary school. 


That the decision was necessary and I had the right to choose a name to answer, so what made it a wrong decision? Is it because it cost me a scholarship? No! the decision was wrong because it was not promptly made. It would have been right if it was prompt. 


So what does it take to make a prompt & right decision? I have learned it from experience and have now made it into a book titled HOW TO MAKE PROMPT & RIGHT DECISIONS. This book will be released on the 5th of September 2021 (My birthday) and it will sell for N3000.00 ($6) but you can now preorder it for just N1000 ($2). 


To preorder, click on the following link: https://paystack.com/pay/1-hun7o4f9


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